Simply the best: a drive in Britain's first Bugatti Type 35

• 
• 
• 

Having inherited a sizeable fortune at the age of 14, Glen Kidston knew how to make the most of it. With a natural appreciation for the finer types of motor car, by 1925 he had amassed an enviable stable, but was anything more to be envied than the first Bugatti Type 35 ever to thunder along British Tarmac?

Kidston travelled all the way to Molsheim to pick up what might have been the world’s most elegant small sports car, with its slender horseshoe radiator and innovative cast-aluminium wheels. After driving chassis 4450 home to London, he returned to France three weeks later for the Grand Prixde Provence. Once back in England, 4450 became the first Type 35 to race at Brooklands, setting fastest-lap times and winning the 90mph Short Handicap.

After enjoying himself very much throughout the 1925 season, Kidston sold 4450 to George Duller, who won the Sporting Life 100mph Handicap at Brooklands in 1927, before it was taken over by T V G Selby from 1929 to 1935; he retired it only when it dropped a valve. This led to its purchase by Lyndon Duckett, who shipped it to his native Australia and set about turning it into the much-modified, and highly successful, Anzani-Bugatti Special.

Later restored to its 1925 specification and more recently converted to road-going trim, 4450 has a provenance few cars can match. John Mayhead takes the wheel in the August issue of The Automobile, on sale now.

Words by Zack Stiling
Photographs by Tony Baker

Kommentar abgeben...